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It's very regional.
Football number one by miles, but tends to be more suburban and urban and not posh.
Rugby Union is posh boys in the South East but in the South West it's farmers and such.
Cricket is at least number three but more evenly spread. It's all about counties with places as far apart as Yorkshire, Hampshire and Somerset pretty hot. It's also very big among British Asians. Not big in cities or among the working class.
All other sports are enthusiasts sports for people that participate or have participated, except tennis which only exists for two weeks of the year.
Foreign sports like ice hockey and cycling are for IT types who were too shy to play rugby at school.
I'd put it at number two after football in terms of national consciousness followed by rugby in third although there's probably not much in it for 2nd and 3rd place.
There's a cricket club in feegie park FFS! One of the most deprived areas of Scotland.
....and Sports Direct at Glasgow Fort sells loads of baseball bats but very few baseballs.
The Easterhouse Dodgers would like to arrange a "Frendly" with the Feegie CC
[quote=fasthaggis said]@Josh
I think it may have more to do with...
English cricket scene
That village (Tilford) is on my regular offroad riding routes, lovely place.
@ Fasthaggis - That top piccy is one of my local cricket greens and its lovely, the pub isn't all that good sadly.
I see cricket as a dying sport amongst the mainstream watchers of sports.
I guess it's fairly cheap to broadcast and hence it's still on radio & telly. My sister listens to test matches on the wireless FFS!!!! It will always have a place in British peoples hearts but mainly as a day out in the sunshine. Cricket must appeal to pensioners, lots of free time to spent day after day staring at a tv screen or radio and even after 5 days of playing, its still a draw. Snooker is even worse, about £200 to broadcast a weeks worth of live coverage but it keeps the pensioners quiet.
I would expect American football to overtake cricket in terms of attendance figures before too long, it seems very popular in urban areas.
My sister listens to test matches on the wireless FFS!!!!
your sister is doing it right.
we might not have an empire anymore, but hopefully the sun never sets on where you can listen to TMS on long wave
I see cricket as a dying sport amongst the mainstream watchers of sports.
I agree in terms of whitey, but around the Midlands and North West it's very popular among Asians, and it's not at all the John Major leather on willow sort of stuff.
I see cricket as a dying sport amongst the mainstream watchers of sports.
Only because the ECB have ******* it into a cocked hat by selling it exclusively to Sky / BT.
I'd have cricket on all the time if I had a sky subscription, but I haven't.
Can't even get highlights on terrestrial now... 🙁
the point of TMS is you don't listen to it. You have it on while doing whatever it is you do and it just worms into your consciousness enough so you know what's happening, and can tune your ear in when necessary. Like Blowers spotting a bus on the Harleyford Road, or a particularly grubby pigeon, or Oh Look! A splendid cake, being carried by a lady in a hat.
And with that I'll hand you over to Aggers.
Also, like rugby union, it’s a bit of an upper class sport. That said, I used to play at a fairly rough comprehensive school in Bolton.
I was at a comprehensive school in a rough part of the west of Scotland and we had a cricket team. A great sport. I do remember hearing a statistic once that said there were actually more people played cricket in Scotland than in England (per head of population) though can't find anything to actually prove that. I do remember Freuchie winning the Village Cup though back in the 80s, something even Ambridge have never managed.
And Test Match Special on longwave is just the most British sports programme ever.
Cricket is a game which the English, not being a spiritual people, have invented in order to give themselves some conception of Eternity.
[i][url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormont_Mancroft,_2nd_Baron_Mancroft ]Stormont Mancroft[/url][/i]
My grandad used to watch it on ceefax or teletext
I worked on Teletext and the editoral bosses were obsessed with cricket.
I'd say golf seems to have a higher-profile these days though. Maybe darts too, though I realise that's really stretching the definition of "sports".
i saw darts on C4 the other day. I was very surprised! In terms of audience, it must be...
1. Football
2. F1
3. Rugby
4. Darts
5. MotoGP
6. Cricket
For the OP, any question about cricket and other sports should be referred to this man...
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I was working overseas with a load of Australians while the Cricket World Cup was on last. It's huge to them.
I enjoy it in small doses, but don't go out of my way to watch / listen to it. Never really played it at school (Midlands comprehensive).
I used to follow Hampshire CC and was there when the new ground was opened. Enjoyed going down after work for a pint and supper whilst watching the last few balls chucked. More a fan of 20:20 and OD’ers than TC (which is both dull and a waste of effort).
So I’d say the table looks alike this:
Wendyball
Ruggerz
Afleticx
Chicrit
Frooky as mentioned above as well as Falkland maybe Upper Largo canny think of many other Fife teams.
It can't be the best cardio vac sport or maybe too many sausage rolls and cake at the break as there's a few chubbsters play it with strange stains near the groin and the bbc commentators are all really posh
I was going to point out there’s a pitch near Perth (Scotland) but then....
I stand corrected. It's an English / inbred hillbilly thing
In terms of sports bulletin coverage it seems mostly football, with a bit of cricket and an annoyingly large amount of tennis.
Yeah, the tennis coverage makes me wonder. Nobody I know follows tennis and I've only ever heard one conversation about tennis where the two people knew anything about it - the way that I hear football or rugby conversations every day.
Test cricket can be a richly glorious game that can ebb and flow. I love the way individual stories and battles can develop over five days. When the stars align hero’s can be made from nowhere.
I would love to follow the English team around the world and quite happily never miss a ball.
Foreign sports like ice hockey and cycling are for IT types who were too shy to play rugby at school.
I'm gonna tell Saxon Rider what you said there.
Fasthaggis - nice picture of local club !! Weird pitch to play on as massive slope
Never been sure if insurance issue as cars are very vulnerable to a well hit shot
The good thing about village cricket is that no one wears pyjamas nor do they invent silly team names
3 but falling
Cricket is fab. The ECB however is run by complete duffers, much like the FA but possibly worse. Probably not as bad as the idiots that govern golf in the British isles, whatever they call themselves.
In Canada, the team sport hierarchy is pretty obvious:1. Hockey
2. CFL Football
3. Baseball (in parts of the country, and pretty much the Toronto Blue Jays only)
4. Everything else
I don't think you're Canadian at all. No mention of Lacrosse? 😉
Where's glof it's not had a mention yet all that wasted land up the East coast of Scotland and Muirfields sexist behavior
First of all Football and Cricket are our National Sports, so it used to be level with footie but not any more.
The game itself is full of a vast number of intricacies,such as spin, turn, length, wicket, cloud cover, bounce, fielding positions etc etc. I grew up with the game but gave up ages 15 as it took too long to play. However unlike a lot of people who still play, I actually understand reverse swing! 😀
I would expect American football to overtake cricket
Now if ever there was a game as incomprehensible as it is boring, American Football would be it.
I spent five weeks trying to learn it whilst on a long trip in the US (which usually meant evenings sat on my Todd in a bar full of TVs showing it). Still absolutely no idea what’s going on, and for reference I have even managed to grasp Aussie Rules, so I’m fairly proficient in my egg-chasing knowledge.
In that same time I managed to learn enough about baseball to form enough of an attachment to The Giants to still peripherally follow them now.
However unlike a lot of people who still play, I actually understand reverse swing!
Well, I understand what it is and how it happens. Not a chance of bowling it myself.
I would guess Single largest event attendance goes.(happy to be proved wrong...)
Tennis (nearly half a million go to wimbledon every year but centre court only holds about 23000)
F1 (400k go to the gb gp every year)
Golf (240k or so went to the ryder cup at Gleneagles)
Cricket (150k ish at the last test series in total but each match is under 30k.
Athtetics (over 80000 were at the 2012 opening ceremony.
Football (80000 i think was spurs record crowd at the olympic stadium)
Rugby Union (about 70k watch each six nations match)
So judging by that cricket is about 4th but those figures are quite mucky as you could say things like "xx saw matches in the fa cup" which would blow everything away.